Lightning struck across the sky as the two forces clashed, Rinae’s claws interlocked with the blade. The blade caused notches within her chitin, some deep, others shallow. Amalia sent electricity through the blade. Rinae began to feel the shock but still absorbed a slight amount, however, it wasn’t enough to stop the attack, Her muscles seized and she was vulnerable.

The surrounding soldiers were ordered to stay back, for their own safety of course. Electricity was a very poor synergetic magic. That type of mage was typically strong from the condition that they had to fight alone. Also, the soldier’s armor was a perfect conductor such collateral damage was unnecessary.

Amalia raised an open palm up to the sky, Lightning struck the center of her palm, the moment it hit the arcs conformed into a ball, seconds it realigned its formation horizontally. She gripped the lightning spear as if it was a physical object, the unstable rod leaked through slits in her fingers. She turned it down to strike the stunned Rinae.The amount of magic that was emanating from the spear was immense.

“It’s over, monster.” She shouted. The crowd of soldiers began to cheer.

Rinae struggled, she was hit with this attack before. A direct attack would probably kill her. Her natural ability to siphon out magic was proving a slight use, the more Amalia focused on the spear in her hands, the less focus that was being put on the stun sword attack. The more she could take and overpower the magic. Which didn’t take very long, she headbutted the holy knight in the stomach sending her back a few steps, just enough for the blade to be released from Rinae’s grip.

The air in her lungs escaped through her mouth. She let go of the lightning spear, it flew towards the crowd and. She felt multiple cracks in her armor. It would have been safe to say that her armor protected her from being skewered by her crown.

The crowd scrambled to the sides after the bolt went flying towards them, unfortunately, it hit an unsuspecting soldier and arced out shocking multiple, a couple immediately went into cardiac arrest. The ones who hadn’t had their helmets on looked the most gruesome, their eyes bulged from their sockets as they seized upon the ground.

Amalia put both hands on her sword taking a more defensive stance, She knew that it was impossible for any normal living creature to move under her influence, she remembered, that she wasn’t facing a normal opponent. Rinae licked the residual electrical magic off her claws. It was definitely strong, and the prey was definitely worth the fight. She didn’t take any wasted moments, she got down on all fours, dug into the ground with her claws and beat her wings. Her large wingspan created artificial gusts of wind. The sound was just as loud as the thunder that was happening around them. She slingshotted forward, the distance between the two closed within seconds.

Amalia pointed her sword more towards the incoming projectile, she let out another bolt. It flew faster than Rinae’s velocity. A direct hit, except there, was no damage or even her stopping. She looked down, Rinae was flying just slightly above the ground, there had been nowhere for the electricity to go, she simply absorbed it.

The two collided, they flew nearly six feet back. Amalia was on her back holding Rinae’s claws at bay. Underneath her, Amalia could feel the strength of her as she pushed the sword further and further down to her throat.

Rinae’s face leaned closer towards Amalia, “Struggle, your fate is mine.” She opened her jaws revealing her rows of inhuman teeth.

Amalia sent a current through the blade, it went through the metal into Rinae and back into her, the circuit was complete and they both were feeling the effects, even with a higher resistance to electric based magic, she was still vulnerable to a lethal prolonged event. If she had to kill herself to kill the monster, so be it. She gritted her teeth unleashed current after current, both Amalia and Rinae’s hair defied gravity, they acted as if there was no weight to them holding them down. Her vision started to fade from the electricity messing with her brain’s natural responses.

…

...

It was silent, sounds were no longer audible, it was just her and that creature. A just for a moment she heard one word.

“Fire!”

Tens of arrows flew through the air landing around her, she felt a feeling, a wet feeling. The current was instantly dropped, not because of her losing focus but because the liquid that touched her was shorting out her magic.

With the current released, Rinae was released, She hissed jumping away from Amalia. She stood just a couple feet away from the prey she was just attacking. She reached to her back and ripped out an arrow that was lodged deep in her back. She threw the neon-blood covered arrow on the ground. Excluding the signature of her blood, her vision revealed there was a group of archers and two magical pheromones one exactly like the one that lingered around Hera. The other was the Ice mage from before.

Elizabeth ran forward from behind the mage approaching Amalia, “Come on, quick! Get up!” She shouted.

Rinae stepped forward to confront the Ice mage.

The mage ordered again, “Fire!”

Another volley of arrows flew forward, Elizabeth dodged nearly all of them by dropping to her stomach, Rinae continued to walk, there was no stopping her advance. That had been until the ice mage froze the path in front of her. It was but in a moment a sword was being swung from her left side. She put her arm up to block, catching the blade with the back of her forearm. His low amount of magic was practically a blind spot to her. She used her free arm to claw at him, he simply raised a shield. Her claw sunk deep into the metal with nearly no resistance. The squire kicked the shield with her claw still in embedded. The ice beneath her feet made her stumble backward even further away from Elizabeth and Amalia.

“I don’t think I stopped it!” the squire yelled.

Rinae removed the claw from the shield and sent it flying towards him, the shield was fast. It grazed past his clothing. The shield stuck itself in the ground just a few feet from Amalia and Elizabeth. She jumped at the sudden impact.

“No! No, you didn’t!” She picked Amalia was picked up underneath her arm. She struggled with the weight of the armor, but survival instincts proved to have greater strength. She retreated to the line behind the archers.

“I thought I told you to run,” Amalia said weakly, the effects of her electrocution was still apparent.

“Yeah, We weren’t the only ones attacked in the city,” Elizabeth replied. “...We ran into an old friend.”

“Fall back!” She ordered!

Amalia looked at the mage, that was calling the orders, it was the same one that they investigated earlier that day.

She looked at Amalia and smirked, “Need help?”

~^~

Rinae looked at the amalgamated scents of mana, she was outnumbered. The small fry in front of her was certainly going to be problematic, that sword he possessed was made out of the same material that the knight’s blade was made from.

But regardless, the ice mage and the one leading those archers were certainly dangerous.

“Fall back!”

The small fry ran back from being her opponent, there was just space in between her and the group.

“Fire!”

Another volley was sent through to her. It confused her why they didn’t learn from the first time that projectiles wouldn’t work.

She began to beat her wings furiously, the wind pressure would distort the targeting path. A few mana balls flew straight for her. They stopped and spread all around her in a semicircle. Curious she went to touch one to absorb.

The balls exploded.